CONSUMERS are being urged to check before they click to buy movie tickets online because booking fees are adding unnecessary extra costs to their holiday cinema experience.

Major cinema chains are charging $1 or $1.20 per ticket for online bookings and up to $5 per ticket for luxury and gold class tickets. These fees — believed to be relatively new — even apply to children, seniors and cheap Tuesday discount tickets, adding almost 10 per cent to the cost of those tickets.

Almost 80 million cinema tickets were sold in Australia in 2014, and up to half of all tickets sold at some cinemas are bought online, potentially costing moviegoers more than $40 million.

Consumer group Choice said online bookings should save cinemas time and money because customers did the work for staff, and questioned why they should have to pay more than walk-up customers.

Cinema chains argue that online bookings are a priority service that helps people choose their seats and avoid queues.

Choice spokesman Tom Godfrey said it many cases, it might not be worth buying movie tickets online. “As a consumer you need to ask yourself if it’s worth coughing up these booking fees to cinemas and working out whether there is any value in them,” he said.

“Online check-outs are rife with fees and charges.”

A spokesman for AHL, which owns Event Cinemas, said: “Our online services, ticketing engine and websites unfortunately do not come at no cost to the business”.

Hoyts did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

NSW Labor MP Walt Secord said accounting experts had told him the practice was “a rort” and there was no way that it cost movie chains $1.20 to process tickets online.

“I think the booking fee is unfair and excessive and it’s the movie chains giving themselves a cash advance on every ticket they sell. They get the money whether you show up or not,” he said.

Online booking fees will not be captured by credit card surcharging law changes due to come into effect in the middle of 2016.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said the fees were legal, and businesses could apply various fees and charges for goods and services.

“Businesses cannot mislead consumers into paying these fees without clearly telling consumers how much it will cost. Any additional fees and charges must clearly be disclosed to consumers at the beginning of the online purchasing process,” an ACCC spokesman said.

“Consumers should be aware there may be additional charges for cinema tickets purchased online and should be prepared to back out of transactions if they don’t want to pay these charges. Consumers should look into alternate transaction methods such as purchasing tickets over the counter.”

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